Thanks to a good chunk of my Facebook friendslist, I came face-to-face with the latest meme virus to infect the social conscience.
Hear those squeaky wheels, lushes and reprobates? That’s the sound of the latest bandwagon rolling into town. Its name: “marriage equality”.
Not that I’m bothered by queerfolk gaining the freedom to indulge in the socially endorsed BDSM ritual known as marriage. Actually, I lie: ideally, I’d love for the state to get ‘n’ stay the fuck out of the marriage biz (amongst other things), leaving folk – queer, straight, bi, poly, siblings – to sort out their own bondage arrangements. I have some sympathy for those who see “marriage equality” as a potential Trojan Horse for future state encroachments; and, of course, I completely sympathise with those who resent their peaceful, private affairs being subject to public and political approval. Nevertheless, seeing as the state won’t vanish anytime soon, I’m all for homogamous unions getting isonomy in the meantime. As long as the Anglosphere doesn’t go down the Denmark route of forcing churches to conduct said unions (a reason for the religious to support church-state separation, if ever there was one), it’s all good.
None of that, however, excuses the clone army mentality across the social networks over the past few days. Driven by an evangelical fervour matching that of their Bible-thumping, Prop 8-supporting counterparts, many of the pro-“equality” folk dispense with all nuance, mischaracterizing sections of their opposition as driven by “hate” (as opposed to rigid traditionalism and/or religious piety) in order to pass as shining heroes. (Incidentally, many of those assimilated into the equality Borg displayed the same erasure of personal identity a few years back in the name of atheism – onward, anti-Christian soldiers!)
As well as the abject demonization of the opposition in the name of “tolerance”, the fundamentalists employ a marked bifurcation in an attempt to increase their numbers, upbraiding those in agreement with their goal who fail to break out in Borgasm.
Wanting to bind all into one uniform bundle? I suppose that fits the criterion for equality – and faggotry of an altogether different kind.
In many ways, this outbreak of point-and-click crusaderism shares many a hallmark with the Kony campaign that infested the Net this time last year. We have the zealous emotionalists, all too ready to submerge themselves in some Good Cause™; said zealots mirroring some of the worst traits of those they claim to oppose; the need to pin a Good Guy Badge to one’s proverbial lapel in a show of sanctity; the berating of the less impressionable as unenthusiastic do-nothings…
…and, of course, the delusion that a few clicks ‘n’ shares on a social network will somehow “make history”.
Makes me wonder when and what the next contagion will be. I, for one, hope (against hope) for a mass inoculation before that time.
Just don’t expect me to make a fucking meme of it.
UPDATE (3/4/13): Check out Jay Michaelson’s piece addressing the inconvenient truth behind “traditional marriage”.
~MRDA~
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Another wonderful post, MRDA.
“As well as the abject demonization of the opposition in the name of “tolerance”, the fundamentalists employ a marked bifurcation in an attempt to increase their numbers, upbraiding those in agreement with their goal who fail to break out in Borgasm.”
It’s a tragicomical twist to watch the rise of this new intolerance culture — one that reinforces zealous hatred and demonization of *anyone* who is even *moderate* in their disapproval (or even their *total indifference*) of gay lifestyle –whether for political reasons, cultural ones, or personal ones without even elevating it to the arena of politics (typically that elevation is something a pro-gay-rights zealot tends to do): if you’re not with us, you’re against us.
It’s also a /ridiculous/ double-standard to see “gay rights” be treated as the new civil rights — ultimately, it’s creating a political trend where love and attraction are to be considered fundamental rights of humans. (Or are we just wanting to *impose* “TOLERANCE” on a politically-constructed strawman?)
— And yet also, on the one had, where we’re extolling the *right* of gays to love and be attracted of the same gender, on the other hand, we’re also constructing an enormous Shame complex towards heterosexuality with this latest rape-shaming campaign: a campaign which is being extended *far* beyond rape, into the realms of courtship and romantic expectations, relationship building, and complex (and entirely non-violent) male-female social interactions, (ie., “This girl is very insistent on wanting to couple with you — but if she’s not -explicitly- asking, don’t you dare make a move, or you’re contributing to rape culture!”) The anti-rape campaign is being extended to shaming heterosexual males for courtship rites, eg, doing things with the intent of relationship-building, and expectation of mutual reciprocity.
So, Liberal Media: Is love / attraction a *right* or a *privilege*? Are only gays more culturally *entitled* to love than heteros, or are they equally entitled? Which is it?
That said, this zeal and sensationalism is the consequential *transference* of the hate-energy forced onto gays by gay persecution culture (and the folklore and political poetry born from it). Gay persecution not only infused the “gay rights” movement with this zealous energy, but played the *more* crucial role in the *creation* of gay identity in the first place: you persecute someone on account of their gayness, you *create* a *political identity* on account of their gayness. Gayness has become a new kind of post-tribal political Ethnos.¹ But why are we giving so much attention to a *tiny* minority (3.8% of the United States) of largely white, middle-class population, who are on average more likely to find regular sexual satisfaction than hetero counterparts? What ever happened to the 99% (or the 95.2%)? Ah, the disproportion between “newsworthiness”, and what’s actually affecting people!
(¹Worth mentioning that there’s *a lot* of inner persecution in gay culture against racial/ethnic minority gays. It might be more useful to define gayness rather as a post-tribal ethnos, as a post-white ethnos, or a balkanization of whiteness.)
Regarding this disturbing trend of countering intolerance and indifference with crusading intolerance, it’s ironic that nothing has really been learnt — just movements throwing around the same old hate and zeal in new wine bottles. It’s like we’re watching the emergence of a new and (exceedingly gay) Robespierre, or the early rumblings of an Inquisition for the new Orthodoxy.
-Ism
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